The current annual consumption of timber in this country is approximately 70,000,000 cubic meters. Accordingly, a total of 700,000 to 1,000,000 tons of wood powder in dried weight equivalent is being arranged and disposed of throughout Japan every year.
In the process of manufacturing wood products including houses and furniture, generation of wood powder as process waste is unavoidable. Sawdust is a typical example. It is said that 2 to 3% of the original weight of the raw material will be turned to sawdust and wasted in a sawing process.
However, it is surprising therefore that there have been no inventions or discoveries during these past decades relating to the use of such an abundant and potentially useful resource which is available in vast quantities. Only examples of conventional uses of wood powder are as fuel in the form of sawdust powder and briquettes, as a raw material for perfume production, a core material for japanwares, heat insulating material and also some agricultural uses.
Even if some portion of the wood powder which is otherwise wasted can be utilized as a useful resource, it would be good news for all the forest related industries in the world.
The inventor responded by developing a method to make wood powder moldable by the use of a suitable binding agent, so that wood powder may be turned into a solid state material in a variety of shapes.